The festival is one of the country’s largest and features many traditional rituals, including an incense offering ceremony at the main temple, recitals of Buddhist scriptures, a palanquin procession at Van Cat temple and a torchlight procession at Tien Huong temple. A wide variety of cultural activities and traditional folk games, such as lion and dragon dancing, human chess, wrestling and a tug-of-war are also set to be staged during the six-day festival.
The highlight of the festival is a Chau Van (spiritual) singing contest, which aims to preserve and promote this national intangible cultural heritage. The Phu Day festival is held annually to honour Mother Goddess Lieu Hanh, one of the four immortals in Vietnamese folklore. It reflects the local people’s desire for a better life.
